Events

We've been working on "They're Playing Our Song" for more than two weeks now. It's a lot of hard work because there are only two actors; Sompor (蘇芯寶) and myself; which means the two of us have to know the whole play from start to finish with no breaks, and we have to sing and dance as well. Yes, I said dance! If you come to the play, you'll actually get to see me dance. That by itself will justify the cost of the ticket ;-)

I'm very fortunate. I perhaps always have been. Every stage production I've worked with has turned out to be very good, and this one is no exception. I'm working with great people. Henry the director knows what he wants, and he knows when to ask us to try certain things; i.e., he doesn't ask for everything at once and expect to get it. Sompor is one of the hardest workers I've ever met. Whenever I feel like slowing down or getting lazy, I just look at her and keep going.

Between Sompor and myself, we have nine songs to sing. We have to dance to half of them. One of the songs is particularly difficult. I'm pretty much out of breath by the end of the song and that last sustained note is hard to maintain without breaking. It's a challenge but we'll both succeed. I have confidence that the show will be great fun, for us and the audience.

Back in July of last year, I was pondering whether to go to L.A. and study singing with Miss Peisha McPhee. During this time, I received a phone call from a local director who explained that he wanted to produce a pet project that he had dreamed of for many years. It was an English language stage musical and he wanted me to star in it! I was surprised, slightly stunned and ecstatic. At the time though, that phone call was confirmation to me that I should go to L.A. and work with Peisha which is exactly what I did.

The name of the play is They're Playing Our Song, written by Neil Simon in 1979. The music was written by Marvin Hamlisch and the lyrics were written by Carole Bayer Sager.

They're Playing Our Song is a simple light-hearted love story, about two very different people falling in love.

While the original script involves two main cast members and six music accompaniment members, our version will only involve the two main cast members; one man and one woman. It's a fun story and I think you'll enjoy it. Personally, I like the story and love the music ;-)

They're Playing Our Song will be performed at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Wanchai in mid-March 2007. I'll provide accurate dates later on.The play will be performed nightly from Mar 16 to 23 at 8pm with extra matinée shows on Mar 17 and 18 at 3pm. Seats will be limited. The theatre seats approximately 100 audience members and we'll only be performing ten shows.

Work begins.

In mid-December, work on the play began. I began taking lessons with a local singing coach picked out by our director. The singing coach is well respected in Hong Kong for both her singing knowledge and her musical acting skills. Her name is Miss Fung. Many of her students know her as Miss Beer. Working with her has been fun. Although I learnt a lot with Peisha in L.A., I am still a long way from being the singer I want to be and there's always plenty to learn. Miss Fung is helping to fill in more of the gaps in my technique while of course also helping me to sing the play's songs as well as I can.

For the time being, we are learning the basics of the songs. Unfortunately, getting the music for the songs has not been easy. Because the play was written back in 1979, the music score is not available in its entirety. We are missing the music scores for two of the songs and also small music pieces that occur during the play. Fortunately, those two songs are available on various CD productions of the play so we can learn from them. As for the other small pieces of music, we have a very capable (and celebrated) music director/arranger who should have no trouble working out something for them from the script.

We are now two months away from performing the musical. Two months may seem like a long time but it's not. There is a lot to do and a lot to learn. I won't be doing much of anything other than work on this play until the performance. Doing otherwise would be unfair to everyone including myself, the director, the actress and the audience.

It's been three weeks since "Perfume" 「香水」 finished, enough time to feel the after-show depression and get over it again. I always enjoy the stage performances. They are the rare opportunity for me to share time with the same group of people over an extended period of time, an opportunity to discover new friends.

"Perfume" was no exception.

Terence 鄭傳軍, the director, is himself an actor with five years of study at the Hong Kong Institute of Performing Arts. He was very particular with every aspect of the play and gave advice or requests to the actors frequently but also respected their need for room and freedom to try their own methods of expression. He did a terrific job with Josie who was simply great on the stage.

Josie 何超儀 has been acting for an eternity but almost always on film. Acting for stage is different and she had to adjust. She's a smart lady though and she worked hard to become the best she could be. It showed. I guess I was lucky on this occasion. When I began working with these people, I had no pre-conceptions about them, their abilities or their personalities. I was starting from scratch. I knew Josie's background but that was all I knew and it didn't affect my relationship with her.

Josie's a marvel. She has many serious physical debilitating problems and she never lets them hold her back. Her mind is as strong as steel and she works as hard as a horse to get whatever she wants. And she doesn't have a single hint of arrogance in spite of her family background and her success in the film world. It's no wonder she has the respect of her peers.

Alice 劉雅麗 was wonderful. She has years of stage acting experience and no character is too big a challenge for her. I'd heard of her a few times over the years that I've been in Hong Kong but I've never worked with her, and I've never seen her performances. It's a pity because she's really a great actor.

Gary 譚偉權 is remarkable. If anyone needs a model of hard work and determination, they need look no further than Gary. He gave up his work in TVB several years ago because they were holding him back, confining him to the children's program. Now he has a full time day-time job and pursues his true love at night; ie, acting. Every day during rehearsals, Gary would work a full eight-hour day at his day-time job and then rehearse with us for four hours in the evening. He's proven that actors can continue to act if they really want to, even if they have to work a day-time job to put food on the table.

Four hard working actors without arrogance, malice or envy all working hard and cooperating to make the best production possible. It's no wonder we became friends.

Sally 林愛心 and Shirley 梁雅芝 were wonderful to work with. If you saw the show, you probably saw them dressed in black walk up onto the stage to stand with us at closing before we left the stage; two wonderful and hard working girls. They faced multiple challenges every day, and they did it without complaint. They were usually over-worked and tired but always wore a smile none-the-less.

It was a great team. I'm proud to have been a part of it.

The play was an original, written by 喻榮軍, a playwright from Shanghai. It was written for a Mandarin audience and we had to make changes; both from a language standpoint and from a content standpoint; for the Hong Kong audience. That said, the playwright did a great job with the play, creating something that was interesting, intriguing and entertaining to watch. That's not an easy feat and the playwright should be commended for his achievement.

Unfortunately, there was one aspect of the play with which I didn't totally agree. Many of the audience found it confusing that Gary and I would suddenly and so obviously be gay partners at the end of the play. It was clearly out of sync with the rest of the story. As actors, there's only so much we can do to control the result of the play. In the end, we have to listen to the demands of the director and the company executives. In this case, it was the company executives who requested this particular ending; albeit in the best interests of the play. They thought that Hong Kong audiences would be entertained by this comical result, and in fact, many audiences were entertained by the ending. Unfortunately, they were also confused. If there is ever a re-run of the play, perhaps they can polish the ending a little to keep it entertaining without the confusion. It won't be easy but they're smart people so anything is possible.

For me, the question now is one of waiting, waiting for the next opportunity to perform on stage. In many ways, it's superior to working for television or film because you're given every opportunity to develop the character, to always be working with your partners on set, and to always perform the role from start to finish without interruption. It's a great way to act.

My first stage performance was in 1997 with "Magic is the Moonlight" 「上海之夜」. My second performance was in 2002 with the "Teresa Tang Forever" musical 「但願人長久鄧麗君音樂劇」. "Perfume" 「香水」 was my third stage performance. Hopefully, I won't have to wait long for my fourth stage performance.

I took quite a few photographs during rehearsals of "Perfume". While I was on stage, Gary would take control of the camera. One of his photographs was extremely impressive and I used it to create this poster. People attending the play might have seen the full A3 version just outside the theatre entrance. It looks great, especially at A3 size on photographic paper.